There is a reason why all great southern literary works, like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, To Kill a Mockingbird and A Confederacy of Dunces, all take place during the blazing, humid months of summer. There is something special about summers below the Mason Dixon Line. It is a place where second story porches are covered in gauzy mosquito nets and used for sleeping in August. Where professional men walk to work in their pressed seersucker and ladies lunch on verandas in sundresses and scarves. The sweet tea never stops flowing and everyone talks and moves really, really slow because it is just too darn hot. Although I am a sucker for a man in seersucker, my favorite aspect of a southern summer is the evening libations. The heat and humidity is stifling, making my usual dry red wine almost suffocating. (And one can only drink so much Chardonnay before resembling some Real Housewife shrew.) The southern answer? Cocktails, good ones. These are not your well drinks of your tacky college days. If you’re over 21, you should not be drinking a Long Island Ice Teas or a Cosmo (the tackiest of all tacky drinks). Nor can any amount of hipster irony make a Dirty Girl Scout or a White Russian acceptable drinks. The first thing you’ll be asked at a cocktail party or happy hour is, “So, what are you drinking?” Take a cue from your southern brothers and sisters and find a cocktail that makes a statement. Below are four of my personal summer staples. Bloody Mary The Blood Mary has gotten a bad wrap in the past 10 or so years. The flavorless tomato water with limp celery is not a Bloody Mary, it is a bloody abomination. One of...